North Naples driver accused of punching other driver in the face

A North Naples driver was arrested Monday after witnesses told deputies he blocked another driver from turning and punched the driver when he honked at him.

Thomas Bridger, 54, faces a misdemeanor charge of battery, according to a Collier County Sheriff's Office report. He was booked at the Naples Jail Center where he remained Tuesday evening. His bail was set at $2,000.

Deputies responded to Oakes Boulevard in reference to a battery at 6:55 p.m. and made contact with a man and a woman who were sitting in a black Kia.

The man told deputies he was driving eastbound on Vanderbilt Beach Road, approaching the intersection of Oakes Boulevard and tried to turn left onto Oakes Boulevard.

But when he attempted to turn he noticed a white truck heading westbound enter the turn lane and "stop abruptly causing him to stop in the middle of the intersection in the pathway of oncoming traffic," the report states.

The man told deputies he used his horn "hoping the truck would move so he could clear the intersection," according to the report. The truck moved forward and then stopped again, the man told deputies.

The man cleared the intersection, but could not continue because the truck was stopped on Oakes Boulevard, according to the report.

The driver of the truck, later identified as Bridger, then got out of his truck and approached the driver of the Kia who lowered his window and began to explain "when Bridger with a closed fist struck" him on the left side of his face, the report states.

Bridger then returned to his truck and drove away, according to the report.

The Kia driver's left side of his face was slightly swollen and blood was smeared from the left corner of his lip across his left cheek, deputies wrote. The Kia's passenger took a picture of the truck's license plate and deputies responded to the address listed for the vehicle.

There, deputies encountered Bridger, who told them he was returning to his house after being at a gas station.

He told deputies he was driving westbound on Vanderbilt Beach Road and approached the intersection with Oakes Boulevard when a car cut him off and tried to steer him off the road, the report states.

Bridger told deputies he exited his truck and approached the car "and that was it," according to the report.

The driver and passenger of the Kia identified Bridger as the driver of the truck, the report states.